Gold Member

Fiction & Poetry AMERICAN WIFE. By Curtis Sittenfeld. (Random House, $26.) The life of this novels heroine  a first lady who comes to realize, at the height of the Iraq war, that she has compromised her youthful ideals  is conspicuously modeled on that of Laura Bush. ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES. By Rivka Galchen. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24.) The psychiatrist-narrator of this brainy, whimsical first novel believes that his beautiful, much-younger Argentine wife has been replaced by an exact double. BASS CATHEDRAL. By Nathaniel Mackey. (New Directions, paper, $16.95.) Mackeys fictive world is an insular one of musicians composing, playing and talking jazz in the private language of their art. BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN. By Charles Bock. (Random House, $25.) This bravura first novel, set against a corruptly compelling Las Vegas landscape, revolves around the disappearance of a surly 12-year-old boy. BEIJING COMA. By Ma Jian. Translated by Flora Drew. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.50.) Mas novel, an important political statement, looks at China through the life of a dissident paralyzed at Tiananmen Square. A BETTER ANGEL: Stories. By Chris Adrian. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $23.) For Adrian  who is both a pediatrician and a divinity student  illness and a heightened spiritual state are closely related conditions. BLACK FLIES. By Shannon Burke. (Soft Skull, paper, $14.95.) A rookie paramedic in New York City is overwhelmed by the horrors of his job in this arresting, confrontational novel, informed by Burkes five years of experience on city ambulances. THE BLUE STAR. By Tony Earley. (Little, Brown, $23.99.) The caring, thoughtful hero of Earleys engrossing first novel, Jim the Boy, is now 17 and confronting not only the eternal turmoil of love, but also venality and the frightening calls of duty and war. THE BOAT. By Nam Le. (Knopf, $22.95.) In the opening story of Les first collection, a blocked writer succumbs to the easy temptations of ethnic lit. BREATH. By Tim Winton. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $23.) Surfing offers this darkly exhilarating novels protagonist an escape from a drab Australian town. DANGEROUS LAUGHTER: Thirteen Stories. By Steven Millhauser. (Knopf, $24.) In his latest collection, Millhauser advances his chosen themes  the slippery self, the power of hysterical young people  with even more confidence and power than before. THE WIDOWS OF EASTWICK. By John Updike. (Knopf, $24.95.) In this ingenious sequel to The Witches of Eastwick, the three title characters, old ladies now, renew their sisterhood, return to their old hometown and contrive to atone for past crimes.